Hi! I'm Kimberly. This website is my online home and commonplace book. A large language model called it "a digital diary that no one asked for." This front page houses a complete stream of all of my short notes, blog posts, and photos.

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Welcome!

๐ŸŽฌ watched Beverly Hills Cop. Eddie Murphy is brilliant here. I can’t believe he was only 22 or 23 when he made this.

My brain, on August 8, 2021: LetterMo is just around the corner! It’s January now, so February will be here soon!

Narrator: It is not January now.

It’s fine if you’ve been sleeping on SCHMIGADOON so far but this week they gave both Kristin Chenoweth and Jane Krakowski amazing songs so it might be a good time to catch up. ๐Ÿ“บ

What I Learned from Sewing Napkins

And some stuff I already knew but needed the reminder sewing napkins gave me.

1. If you want things to be the same size, cut them at the same time. Corollary: This is easier if you have a rotary cutter and cutting mat.

I made 4 napkins. Three of them are slightly different sizes and one is much smaller than the rest. This is fine. But my next project is a pillow, and I’d really like the two pieces of fabric I need to be nearly identical in size.

I knew this already because as I watched my mom sew garments I would see her cut both sleeves at once. The way you do this is fold the fabric in half with the side you don’t want to show in the finished item out. You pin or draw your pattern on, and then cut around it.

The easiest way to do this is with a rotary cutter, which has a round blade and a handle and you can essentially trace the pattern with it and it will cut through multiple layers of fabric. I don’t have one right now but I’m probably going to bump the one on my wishlist up in priority. But I think for only doing two layers, my fabric shears will do just fine.

(Do not use fabric shears to cut anything else ever.)

You need a mat to put under the project if you’re using a rotary cutter so it doesn’t cut into the surface you’re using to hold your fabric as you cut.

2. I really need help to sew a straight seam.

At first I thought I needed to practice this but my friend Casey gave me some magnetic seam guides for my birthday. I had forgotten those existed. These are little magnetic bits of metal you attach to a piece of the sewing machine called the throat plate. The throat plate is the thing the fabric scoots across as you’re sewing. Keep the fabric right up against the seam guide and you don’t have to remember where it should be. Which was my problem, I couldn’t remember how much fabric I wanted to the right of the seam.

3. If your pressing doesn’t get the fabric flat enough, you can help it with your fingers.

Most of this project involved sewing through three layers of fabric. The fabric was folded under itself to hide the edge because people can see both sides of a napkin (as opposed to a garment, where people can’t see the edge unless you pull the garment up or take it off). Sewing the edge of the fabric so it’s folded and doesn’t have a raw edge is called hemming the fabric.

On the corners, though, I had two sides' worth of folds to sew through, so I was sewing through six layers and I hadn’t been able to press it with my iron fully flat.

But guess what? I have fingers! And I could just barely put a little pressure on the fabric to get it flat enough, so that’s what I did.

4. Sewing is super satisfying.

I crocheted myself a cardigan last fall and it took months. I could probably sew a cardigan in an afternoon. It’s really nice to see the results of your work so quickly.

What have you learned lately?

I can’t recall if I’d ever seen Abbott & Costello’s “Who’s on First” before tonight but I just watched it, it’s as brilliant as everyone gives it credit for being, and I’m blown away that they could keep that bit going for 7+ minutes.

Hello and welcome to my current existential crisis.

The CHIP ‘N’ DALE: RESCUE RANGERS theme is a masterpiece of musical maximalism. ๐ŸŽต

I love physicist Carlo Rovelli’s phrase, “radical lack of certainty,” quoted in Austin Kleon’s blog post about uncertainty in science and art.

๐Ÿ“บ I’m not remotely close to caught up on The Owl House but I just want to say that Luz’s tailcoat and tutu combo is the dream. Via romanticwolf131 on Tumblr.

Want to read: A Lesson in Vengeance by Victoria Lee ๐Ÿ“š

Finished reading: The Four-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferriss ๐Ÿ“š

๐ŸŽฎ Played Dragon Quest on Android. Gorgeous pixel remake of the foundational JRPG. Super fun! ๐Ÿฒ

๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ—ฏ๏ธ Read Once & Future Vol. 1: The King Is Undead by Kieron Gillen and Dan Mora. Arthuriana and a story about the nature of stories, plus a kickass grandma. Looking forward to reading more. ๐Ÿ—ก๏ธ

๐Ÿ’ฌ๐Ÿ”– “What did I learn today about how to live this life?” This question applies to a lot more than writing.

Catapult | On Writing (with a Day Job) | Richard Mirabella catapult.co

๐Ÿ“š๐Ÿ“บ At Electric Literature, Meera Vijayan writes about the value of seeing Alina Starkov build her strength a little at a time in the face of staggering self-doubt and how good representation doesn’t always require “strong” female characters.

I’m available for work starting September 7. Ideal employed situation is part-time, remote, at least $1500/mo. Also open to contract work. My superpowers are research design, qualitative analysis, workflow organization, clear writing, & speaking.

Putting yourself back together

I’ve written before about how matrescence is like kintsugi: having a baby shatters you and the living you do after you have the baby puts you back together with shiny gold holding you together. But I haven’t articulated how putting yourself together is a long process.

Meg at Sew Liberated writes today about the twelve year project of making a skirt that she started when she was a new mom and only finished recently. Her oldest is 12.

Part of the kintsugi of matrescence is finding the pieces. I misplaced a lot of mine in the time after my son was born. He’ll be 5 in October. I’m gathering the pieces but a lot of them are still in a pile waiting to be stuck to the me that’s here now.

I find them in moments when I’m doing something and suddenly feel more me than I have in a very long time. When I stay up late coding. When I watched the Stephen Sondheim 90th birthday concert. When I talk through a research design with colleagues.

Putting yourself together is an ongoing project; we’re each a big Katamari ball of experiences and interests. (How’s that for a dated reference? Have I mentioned I’m 40?) In my case, at least, that ball got blown apart. It’s encouraging to find all its bits are still within reach.

Today my (medical) doctor called me and when I answered, she said, “Hello, Dr. Hirsh?”

Finished reading: Harrow the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir ๐Ÿ“š

๐Ÿ“š In HARROW THE NINTH Harrowhark uses the phrase “A fatal longing for the picturesque” and I’m all “AHHHHH is that a THE SECRET HISTORY reference?”

What a beautiful day! We're not scared. ๐Ÿป

Are you familiar with the poem/book/animated short film WE’RE GOING ON A BEAR HUNT?

I highly recommend it. Kids wander through all types of terrain trying to find a bear. They come across many obstacles: long, wavy grass; thick, oozy mud; and others. The refrain is this:

We can’t go over it, we can’t go over it, oh no, we have to go through it.

Katy Peplin’s recent newsletter about being in the middle and getting discouraged made me think of the bear hunt.

Everything in life is a bear hunt, isn’t it?

But of course, while the kids are in the middle of each obstacle, they’re having fun. The mud goes squelch squorch. The grass goes swishy swashy.

It’s just another variation on the journey being more important than the destination.

What are we rushing toward? Can we find joy in the hard parts?

๐Ÿ”–๐Ÿ“บ๐ŸฟThis piece identifies what made LOKI less than ideal for me: Loki himself is constrained, not as grand or mischievous as we’re used to. Great piece overall:

Loki as Other: Why Do Queer and Female Viewers Love the Trickster? tor.com

Read: www.tor.com